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The couple do not have children, but they cherish their two Australian shepherds. Coasters with photos of the canines decorate DeMaagd’s desk at the Jerome office. “One of the reasons we bought our house here is because it had a fence for the dogs,” he said.
But DeMaagd didn’t know he would be relocating again when he was hired on as a acting forest supervisor on Sept. 1 to replace Kit Mullen, who retired at the end of August after four years at her post.
Now responsible for Sawtooth National Forest’s 2.1 million acres, DeMaagd says that’s nearly twice the size of what he supervised in Oregon. Despite the sizable geographical difference, the issues are similar.
“This is a different dynamic with the same concerns, maybe just not as many,” he said. As a multiple use agency, there are a lot of moving parts. One ongoing effort at the center is working to improve forest health, which involves creating more fuel wood, and removing dead lodgepole pine, a current focus of the timber program.
“It’s the process of making the forest more resilient, not unlike any other forest,” he said.
But the Sawtooth comes with a vast array of programs, DeMaagd explained from a long range program with range allotments to a locatable and common variety minerals program — one of the larger ones nationally — according to DeMaagd, and a complex fire program, which houses a 20-person Type 1 hotshot handcrew in the building.
“The fascinating part of the Sawtooth is the diversity of the programs,” he said.
DeMaagd hopes to maintain community engagement as a key priority, and welcomes both support and concerns, especially during NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) scoping and objection periods, which happen approximately 10 times per year with open dates published in the paper. “They (the public) has to be part of the process or we can’t be successful,” he said.
DeMaagd looks forward to getting settled in so he can take up his side hobbies again — hunting, building cars and leatherwork.
“One day I was curious how to make a saddle, so I started looking at one,” he said,” and the next day I built one.” DeMaagd gives his saddles to relatives, including his in-laws in Oregon who are ranchers, and sells them to people he knows.
The Sawtooth National Forest was established in 1905. Its land stretches from south-central Idaho into northern Utah. Visit its website to learn more at fs.usda.gov/main/sawtooth/home.
BOISE — Members of the Idaho House of Representatives took time Monday to remember former lawmakers who passed away this year, but one late Magic Valley legislator was not included in the ceremony.
Rep. Donna Scott, a Republican from Twin Falls, died on Feb. 9, too recently for lawmakers to prepare for Monday’s memorial. She will be honored next year instead.
In the meantime, Donna’s friends and colleagues remember her as a committed public servant who dedicated much of her life to enriching her Magic Valley home.
Scott was elected to the House of Representatives to represent District 23 in 1982, making her one of the first women from south-central Idaho to be elected to the Legislature.
During her time in office, she served as a member of the powerful Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.
A Times-News editorial from 1986 described Scott as a “hard worker,” while a letter to the editor from the same year supporting Scott’s candidacy praised her as being “respected and admired on both sides of the aisle for her tireless dedication” in the statehouse.
After serving two terms in the Legislature, Scott lost the Republican primary election in 1986 against Ron Black, a day care operator from Twin Falls.
In 1984, Scott was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as Idaho’s Commissioner for the Presidential Commission of Scholars. Other contributions to her Magic Valley home included penning the Twin Falls centennial song “Just Add Water,” which beat out other entries in a 2002 contest to win the official designation.
TWIN FALLS — D.L. Evans Bank has announced its 2018 Employee Service Award recipients. Each recipient exemplifies the standards of integrity, loyalty, hard work, teamwork and dedication to customer service.
Johnny Hagenbuch of Ketchum carved out a piece of American skiing history last month at the cross country Junior World Ski Championships in Finland.
Hagenbuch skied the third leg of the 4x5-kilometer relay for the U.S. under-20 team, exiting the course with the Americans in a tight race for gold. He watched as teammate Gus Schumacher crossed the finish line nearly 4 seconds ahead of the competition — securing the historic first Junior World gold medal in cross country skiing for the U.S. men.
“That was a profoundly emotional moment,” Hagenbuch said.
Hagenbuch, 17, is a junior at the Sun Valley Community School and a member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation team. He grew up in Ketchum and began Nordic skiing about six years ago as a recreational activity with his parents.
JEROME — Bobbi Justice, Lisa Henderson and Jose Chicas-Marquez are the Jerome School District’s “Excellence in Education” award recipients for January.
Each recipient received a plaque and $50 gift card provided by Jiffy Lube/Burton Group. Recipients are selected by a committee that reviews nominations submitted by employees, parents, students and community members.
“Lisa Henderson is an amazing teacher! When I first moved to Jerome, one of my children had her as a teacher. No matter what conversation we had whether it was at parent teacher conference or just a phone call home to discuss how my child was doing she was always professional. I always felt that she had the best interest of my child in mind. I have found this to be the case working her with on a professional level as well. Lisa is very conscientious of what her students need. She has an especially difficult group of students this year and she is always talking to others and doing research outside of school hours to find strategies and new ways to try and connect with the students. She has been working on teaching her students about having a growth mindset. To that end she wrote a grant to get money so that she could buy books that specifically target behaviors and thought processes that children might have. She was awarded the grant and will share the books with others in the school that want to use them.
TWIN FALLS — Zions Bank has hired Shane Hamblin, Scott Bame and Jeffrie Mason for its Twin Falls Canyon Park branch, 1863 Blue Lakes Blvd. N.
Hamblin joins Zions Bank as a commercial banking relationship manager, responsible for developing and maintaining banking relationships with business and agricultural clients. He grew up in the Magic Valley and has more than 16 years of experience in the banking industry, working primarily with commercial and agriculture clients. Hamblin holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Idaho State University and speaks Italian and Spanish.
Bame has been hired as a commercial banking relationship manager also, after a decade with U.S. Bank. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Western Governors University and an Master of Business Administration from Idaho State University.
Mason joins the team as an assistant relationship officer and has 16 years of experience in the financial industry. He earned associate degrees in business and Spanish from the College of Southern Idaho and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Boise State University.
TWIN FALLS — Jason Vickrey and Jessica Meade have been promoted to new positions at TitleOne.
Vickrey has been with TitleOne for four years and has been promoted to president of the company. He has previous experience in fundraising and lending. Vickrey is currently a Boys and Girls Club board member, co-chair for the Boys and Girls Club auction and chair for the Magic Valley Charity Golf Classic. He is a recent Idaho Business Review’s Accomplished Under 40 recipient.
Jessica Meade has been promoted to vice president central Idaho. She has 15 years of banking and lending experience. Meade attended Baker College in Michigan. She was a past president for Paint Magic and currently serves on the board for the Twin Falls School District Education Foundation.
TWIN FALLS — Three years ago, Barb Denney created Canyon Ridge High School’s college and career center from the ground up.
Denney — the school’s college and career adviser — helps students navigate the complex world of college applications, financial aid and career options.
Canyon Ridge, which has more than 1,200 students, is home to the Twin Falls School District’s high school refugee and English language learner students. Many are the first generation in their family to pursue education beyond high school.
Denney’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. She was recently named Idaho’s “K-12 Champion” by the Idaho ACT Council for her work promoting college and career readiness.
Idaho ACT Council — affiliated with the national nonprofit best known as the provider of the ACT college entrance exam — is a group of educators and industry representatives.
Denney’s award was one of four the council gave out this year, including student awards.
Denney was hired in 2016 for the brand new college and career adviser job, funded by the state. She transformed an old English as a second language classroom to create a college and career center.
Denney is Canyon Ridge’s coordinator for PSAT, SAT and ACT college entrance exams. She compiles a quarterly newsletter with scholarship opportunities for students, takes students on tours of college campuses, coordinates monthly career presenters, plans FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) nights, provides a cost of attendance sheet where students can make financial comparisons between schools and is in charge of the school’s College Application Week.
This school year, Canyon Ridge created a second college and career adviser position.
“I do a lot of individual work with students on college applications and the FAFSA, so that second position was really needed,” Denney said.
Canyon Ridge senior Rachel Fields, 18, has sought help from Denney with finding ways to pay for college.
“I kind of took a lot of initiative to look into schools myself, but she’s been really helpful with finding financial aid,” she said.
Fields and her mother toured college campuses during her sophomore year. She wants to study environmental engineering.
Fields applied to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in California; Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.; University of Portland; University of Idaho; University of Notre Dame in Indiana; and Purdue University in Indiana. She has been accepted to some and is waiting to hear back from others.
The Twin Falls School District is limited in how many school counselors it can have, spokeswoman Eva Craner said, and they serve a lot of students. Having advisers who can hone in on helping students prepare for college and careers is important, she said.
Without the college and career advisers, counselors wouldn’t be able to give students the level of help they’re receiving, Nelson said.
Canyon Ridge used to have a federal GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) grant, but the school no longer has that program since it followed a specific cohort of students up to graduation.
But the school does have a representative from the federally-funded TRIO program on campus two days a week and a coordinator from the College of Southern Idaho early college program three days a week.
“They’re a good support for our students, also,” Denney said.
Statewide, there’s a push for more students to go to college. The state’s “Complete College Idaho” plan aims for 60 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds to have a post-secondary degree or certificate by 2020 in order to help meet workforce needs.
There’s also a push to improve Idaho’s “go on” rate. About half of Idaho’s high school seniors pursue higher education — such as college or workforce training — within a year after graduating.
MOSCOW — Former state Rep. Maxine Bell is the first non-professor to receive an award for advancing research at Idaho universities.
The Jean’ne M. Shreeve Research Excellence Award has been given since 2011 by the Idaho Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research to recognizes the accomplishments of professors at Idaho universities.
This is the first time since it was established in 2011 that an honorary reward has gone to a non-faculty member. It recognizes Bell’s long-standing support for high-quality scientific research at Idaho’s universities and her extraordinary leadership at the state level, officials said.
The award was inspired by University of Idaho Distinguished Professor Jean’ne M. Shreeve and highlights the value of the competitive research program to the state as well as the individual accomplishments of the recipient.
Bell, of Jerome, retired in December after more than 30 years at the statehouse. She also worked on the family row crop farm southeast of Jerome until 1997, when she and her husband retired from the day-to-day operation of the farm. She was appointed by the State Board of Education to the Idaho EPSCoR Committee in 2001 and has been an active member ever since.
Since Bell’s appointment to the EPSCoR Committee, research and development expenditures from all sources at Idaho’s universities and colleges have nearly doubled — from $82.5 million to $155 million in 2016.
Also during this period, Idaho’s share of National Science Foundation research funding tripled. These investments in academic research have addressed water and natural resources issues, biomedical science needs and other topics of importance to Idaho, as well as educated and trained hundreds of scientists.
News Bite: Who’s coming and going at Kimberly and Gooding schools?
KIMBERLY — The Kimberly and Gooding school boards signed off last week on employee hires and resignations.
TWIN FALLS — The Southern Idaho Association of Health Underwriters, an organization of health insurance agents, brokers and professionals, recently installed its 2018-2019 board.
Colby Fiala was installed as SIAHU president. She has been in the insurance industry since 2002. Fiala is one of the partners at Magic Valley Insurance. She is a member of the National Health Underwriters Association and has served in many roles for both the Idaho state chapter and southern Idaho local health underwriters. Fiala currently resides in Filer.
“Local agents and brokers serve as a source of truth about healthcare coverage that links the needs of citizens, business and policymakers to create a healthy more fiscally responsible American healthcare system,” Fiala said in a statement.
For more information, go to nahu.org.
News Bite: Who’s coming and going at Twin Falls schools?
TWIN FALLS — Fewer people are resigning this time of year from the Twin Falls School District, but some are planning for retirement next school year.
TWIN FALLS — Alisa Radmall, Amber Bryan, Renay Skov and Becca Austin are the Twin Falls School District’s December employees of the month.
SPOKANE — Northwest Farm Credit Services has promoted Matt Bruning to senior vice-president of southern Idaho, based in the company’s Twin Falls branch.
Bruning was most recently vice president of credit for Idaho.
He has also served as assistant vice president of customer solutions for Idaho and had held relationship manager and senior credit officer positions in Twin Falls.
Bruning holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance and business management from Idaho State University.
Riley Griffin was promoted to vice president of credit, based in the company’s Burley branch.
He was most recently relationship manager/VP. Griffin joined NFCS in May 2011 as credit officer trainee and was named relationship manager in November 2011. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of South Dakota and holds bachelor degrees in economics and mathematics from Brigham Young University.
TWIN FALLS — D.L. Evans Bank has appointed two new personal bankers at two different branches of the bank.
Mario Bacilio has taken the position in the downtown Twin Falls branch. He is currently attending the College of Southern Idaho.
Bacilio invites his customers, friends and family to visit him at the bank, 222 Main Ave. S. He can be reached by calling 208-736-7300.
LiAnna Good has been promoted in the south Burley branch. She has been with the bank since 2016. In her position as personal banker, she will help customers with auto loans, home equity lines of credit, credit cards, new accounts or any other personal banking needs.
Good volunteers for Relay For Life, highway clean-up and assisting with local parades. She invites her customers, friends and family to visit her at the bank, 2281 Overland Ave. She can be reached by calling 208-678-6000.
Ty Osterhout with First Federal Savings Bank's Overland Branch was awarded the 2018 Affiliate of the Year from the Mini Cassia Realtors.
Sharon Hobbs with Carey & Adams Realtors was awarded the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award from Mini-Cassia Realtors Association's first vice president Alyssa Terry.
HEYBURN — The Mini-Cassia Chamber of Commerce has announced the hiring of Member Services Coordinator Laurina Gause.
Gause was born and raised in Cartagena, Columbia, and has a love for cooking, painting with acrylics, and all things craft related. She moved to Idaho with her husband, Patrick, in February 2018.
Gause discovered her love for the work chambers of commerce do in communities when she worked in a similar position in her hometown Chamber after graduating college. She brings with her extensive experience and passion in sales and marketing.
TWIN FALLS — With two days left in his term, Terry Kramer’s office is almost entirely packed up.
Gone are the knife collection, the floral print couch and the buffalo hide that once surrounded his desk. And after 12 years, it’s a strange feeling. When Kramer leaves on Friday afternoon, he plans to head out of state for a few weeks.
The office will be taken over by commissioner-elect Brent Reinke come Monday, but the presence of Kramer’s legacy will be felt for years to come. On Wednesday, he was honored at a retirement party by state and local officials, county employees and friends. Many spoke about Kramer’s commitment to county government, emergency services and employee compensation throughout the years.
Kramer has served on the Twin Falls County Commission since 2007, but he’s continued to live and farm in his hometown of Castleford. And he imagines he’ll continue farming grain, corn and hay for the rest of his life. At 65 years old, he has no plans to run for public office again.
“I just don’t think that I could improve on what I’ve already done,” he said.
Kramer has taken the election loss the best of any official Grant Loebs has known, the county prosecutor told a roomful of people on Wednesday.
But Kramer stuck through to the very end, and even reached out to Reinke and invited him to meetings.
“The two of them sat there like they were best friends,” Loebs said.
Despite the emotional toll the loss took on Kramer, he chose to move on.
As each person spoke a few words, Kramer, in turn, spoke highly of him or her. Still, he agreed that he’s leaving the county better than he found it.
Kramer says he’s proud of several things he’s done in his time as county commissioner, but the first of those is helping to develop a long-range plan for the county.
“We’ve remodeled virtually every building,” he said.
He helped develop the County West building into a “one-stop shop” for services, bringing complimentary services such as the VFW, veterans services, Interlink Volunteer Caregivers and Safe House under the same roof.